Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me

"Patricia Volk’s grandfather introduced pastrami to America — a story she told in her evocative 2002 memoir, Stuffed. Volk introduces something just as revolutionary and delicious in Shocked, a memoir that focuses on two titanic role models she embraced as a girl: her knockout of a mother, Audrey, and the famous haute couture designer, Elsa Schiaparelli. Volk brings something of Schiaparelli’s surrealist approach to Shocked (whose book jacket is the eye-popping shade of “shocking pink” that Schiaparelli invented). The narrative is exuberantly loopy and the gorgeous color photos of creations like Schiaparelli’s high-heeled, ocelot fur bowling shoes and “lobster dress” don’t just supplement the text, but extend it outward."